Today The Chronicle launches its Home for Youths Campaign to raise awareness about the hundreds of homeless young people living in the North East.

Nearly 11,000 families are registered homeless across the region, many including youngsters forced onto the streets through no fault of their own.

Some 76pc of young people homeless say they had no choice but to leave home.

At the end of last year 560 young people were listed as priority cases after being left homeless because parents, relatives and friends were no longer able or willing to accommodate them. In 1997 the figure was closer to 320.

To tackle the problem the Community Foundation set up the Youth Homelessness Initiative in 2001 to ensure no young person was unintentionally homeless in Tyne Wear and Northumberland by 2005.

Mike Worthington, foundation chairman, said: "A common misconception is all young homeless people choose to become homeless.

"Leaving home is a natural transition to independence for most young people. However, young people are often given little help in the transitional process and face obstacles.

"Due to low incomes and unemployment many have severe problems finding affordable accommodation.

"Restrictions in levels of Income Support and Housing Benefit for under 25s and lack of entitlement to Income Support for most 16 and 17-year-olds has contributed to increased homelessness.

"Finding suitable hostel accommodation is often a problem as most hostels will not accept 16s and 17s.

"Some large, more traditional hostels house predominately older male residents and young people can feel intimidated and unsafe."

Mark Sidney works with homeless young people at the Byker Bridge Housing Project in Newcastle, which provides beds for 22 people. He said: "Now we have five young people and it is not an ideal situation for them to be mixing with older residents who have substance misuse problems. They are very vulnerable and can be easily led.

"The reasons why young people are homeless varies. When teenagers get to 16, some parents demand they pay rent or food bills, unrealistic if a youngster cannot afford it.

"Many youngsters we deal with come out of care and do not have the skills to look after themselves or find a home.

"There should be no need for anyone to be sleeping rough these days. There are enough hostel places but many are unaware of help on offer.

"Many homeless youngsters don't even see themselves as homeless because they are not sleeping on the streets. A lot are staying with friends.

"We hope this campaign will make young people more aware of organisations who can help them and highlight the problem we have here."

The Chronicle's campaign is hoping to encourage councils to include specific schemes to cut youth homelessness in their strategies, to be written by the end of July.

Between April and December last year 832 young people were recorded homeless in Co Durham, two thirds 18 to 25 and nearly one in three 16 to 17.

Charity Centrepoint, which conducted the survey, found one in 10 were sleeping rough and one in five had slept rough in the past. More than half were homeless because of family breakdown. Some 395 said they could not get on with their parents, 177 said they had nowhere else to go and 71 people surveyed were fleeing violence.

Only seven per cent had been in trouble with the police and just 8.5pc had a drug or alcohol problem.

Neil Bellerby, of Centrepoint said: "The monitoring shows rough sleeping is a significant issue locally. Hidden homelessness is more widespread, with many staying with networks of family and friends."

A recent study by the Children's Society alleges 10 children a day in the North East run away from home after being sexually or physically abused by parents, carers or someone close to the family.

Childline gets 1,170 calls a year about sexual abuse from North East children - 58pc said the abuser was in the family.

Nick Emley, of the Children's Society, said: "Society has a stereotypical view of a homeless person, someone begging on the streets, but that's a small part of the problem. Homelessness is a hidden problem that affects people from all walks of life."

Neil Munslow, manager of homeless and managed accommodation for Newcastle Council, said the last official count of people sleeping rough in Newcastle was just two, with over 99pc housed in purpose-built accommodation. But he says need for financial and physical support is as great.

Eight months ago Richard Murry thought the only future left open to him was a career in the Army. The 22-year-old was forced out of his home in Cowgate, Newcastle, by intimidation from a group of locals and was living in a temporary hostel in the centre of the city.

With no qualifications and unable to live with his parents in Gateshead, unemployed Richard decided to join-up as the only alternative to living in a hostel. But after landing a place at Simonside House, a Depaul Trust Homeless Hostel in Heaton, he realised his future could take another direction.

Now Richard is planning to go back to college to study A-levels in historical studies, IT and English language. And he wants to take ancient history or archaeology at university.

Richard said: "I moved out of home at 16 and for personal reasons there is no way I could go back there again. We are a close family but I couldn't go home.

"People do treat you differently when they find out you are homeless. I thought my only option was to join the army. But the Depaul Trust totally changed my life around and encouraged me to do what I really want to do."

The Depaul Trust is a national charity set up to offer disadvantaged youngsters chances to fulfil their potential and move towards an independent future.

Ray Usher, project manager of Simonside House, said: "Simonside House is full 99 per cent of the time and at the moment we have nine people on the waiting list hoping to get beds. Our aim is to make sure people are on the right track to getting their lives back together rather than solving the problem temporarily or moving it elsewhere."